Andhra Pradesh INTUC State organising secretary V.J. Ajay Kumar and his wife Velpula Prema Kumari, a former corporator in the Greater Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation (GVMC) have decided to resign from the Congress and join the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
Announcing the decision at a media conference on Wednesday, Mr. Ajay Kumar, who had also served as divisional coordinator of the East Coast Railway Shramik Congress, said that he had served for 33 years as a trade union leader in the railways and had participated in several agitations. I was promised the party ticket to contest the Assembly elections but the party leaders went back on their promise.
Lauding the good work being done by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Mr. Ajay Kumar said that Mr. Modi came from a poor family and has given enough indications of reaching out to the poor and dalits. “We are confident that the interests of minorities would be protected under the leadership of Mr. Modi and the BJP would do justice to the Dalits,” he said.
A Dalit leader, Bangaru Laxman, was made the party’s national president in the past and many Dalits had also served in various capacities. He felt that the Congress could have done more for the Dalits. He said that he would join the BJP in the presence of the party’s State president and MP Kambhampati Haribabu at Subbalakshmi Kalyana Mandapam in the city on Thursday.
